The State government’s actions are responsible for the power scarcity in the State today, Union Minister for Power M. Veerappa Moily said in Bidar on Sunday. “The State government has no long-term plan for ensuring energy security. It keeps blaming the Union government without doing anything concrete to increase and distribute power,” he told presspersons. He was here to address a party workers rally and meet senior Congress leaders. This is his first visit to the district after taking charge as the AICC senior leader in charge of six districts in Gulbarga division.
He said the State government had not taken any steps to distribute 600 MW of additional power produced in the LANCO power project in Udupi. Even after the project began producing power 19 months ago, the government did not lay transmission lines to distribute extra power to other districts. This led to a situation where districts like Udupi and Dakshina Kannada got power for 24 hours, but other districts suffered from long blackouts, he said.
Transmission source
He said the Raichur-Sholapur 765 kV transmission line would be completed by December 2013. This line can carry 4500 MW of power and will connect south India to the western region of the country. Once this happens, power transmission across States would become easier. He pointed out that a large portion of the responsibility of developing the Hyderabad Karnataka regionlies with the State government. The Centre will table the Amendment Bill in the current session of the Parliament. But it is for the State government to utilise provisions under Article 371 and other sections and ensure welfare of the people and development of the backward region, he said.
Tirade against BJP
Mr. Moily went on to criticise the Bharaiya Janata Party for stalling Parliament proceedings. “Some people describe the BJP as a fascist force. This is the chance for its leaders to show their ideological leanings. It should allow the Parliament to function normally if it believes in democracy,” he said.
He said that intellectual bankruptcy is making the BJP block Parliament for days on end. Their insistence that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should resign based on the CAG’s report on the coal block auction is not in accordance with Parliamentary principles.
On recommendations
He said the committee headed by Mr. Singh had allocated the blocks following the report of a screening committee of experts and recommendations by State governments. The BJP was attaching too much importance to the CAG report. “It is an audit report of the loss that can accrue after several decades. It needs to be studied and accepted as feedback for framing policies,” he said. “If presumptive loss is the basis for seeking the Prime Minister’s resignation, then the BJP should set an example by asking all its five Chief Ministers, who had recommended the allocations first, to resign,” he said.
